FontForge install procedures
    for unix/linux based systems
  
  
  I no longer provide pre-built packages. You may
  either compile from source or download a package from another site (most
  linux distributors will have a fontforge package).
  
  
    Installing from a pre-built package
  
  
    Obtaining one of my pre-built packages
  
  
  I used to post pre-built packages for i386 linux systems and for Sparc Solaris
  systems. These can still be found on
  sourceforge's
  file release system. But they are out of date now. There's
  a certain amount of pother involved in using this system, but you get the
  file eventually.
  
    - 
      If you follow the
      link
      above you will end up on a page showing many releases of FontForge for
      many systems
 in most cases you will want the most recent release.
- 
      Then click on the executable package you want to download:
      
	- 
	  For i386 linux you will want the rpm file for the i386 (This happens to have
	  been built on RedHat 9, but it should work on any i386 linux system that
	  supports rpm -- RedHat, Fedora, Suse, Mandrake, etc.)
	
- 
	  For Sparc Solaris you will want the tar.bz2 file for sparc.
      
 
- 
      Then you have the joy of choosing a mirror site (pick one that's on the same
      continent you are) and click on the little icon in the download column
    
- 
      Then you wait. After a bit you get another copy of this same page. After
      an even longer time your browser notices that you've started a download.
  
    Obtaining a package from another source
  
  
  Most of the linux distributions have packages for fontforge. These will often
  be a little older than my packages, but perhaps more stable. I shall not
  try to provide a complete list, but I am aware of the following sites:
  
    - 
      debian
      -- has builds for (alpha, amd64, arm, hppa, hurd-i386, i386, ia64, m68k,
      mips, mipsel, ppc, s390, sparc)
    
- 
      netbsd
      -- has builds for (alpha, i386, ppc, sparc, x86_64)
    
- 
      rpmfind -- will point you toward builds
      for Fedora, Suse, Mandrake, and others
    
- 
      Apostolos Syropoulos has a Solaris x86 package at
      his site
    
- 
      Mac OS/X -- Although the Mac is now a unix
      system its install procedure is sufficiently different that I have a page
      devoted to it specifically.
  
    Installing from an rpm
  
  
  The i386 package I provide, and many of the linux packages others provide
  are "rpm" files.
  
  Installing an rpm package is relatively straight forward. You will need to
  be root. Move to the directory containing the downloaded rpm, and then type
  (do not type the "$" or "#"):
  
    # rpm -i fontforge-*.rpm
  
  
  If you've already installed fontforge and are updating an earlier version
  then you should type:
  
    # rpm -U fontforge-*.rpm
  
  
    Installing from an executable tarball
  
  
  The solaris package I provide is a bzipped tarball (that is, it has an extension
  of ".tar.bz2"). You will probably need to be root for some of this process.
  Move to the directory containing the downloaded tarball and type (do not
  type the "$" or "#"):
  
    $ bunzip2 fontforge-*.tar.bz2
$ tar xf fontforge-*.tar
$ cd fontforge
$ su
# ./doinstall
  
  
  (Older versions may have an extension of .tgz. In this case you would replace
  the first two lines with "$ tar xfz
  fontforge-*.tgz")
  
  Caveat: My packages generally install
  to /usr/local, and this may not be in your default PATH. You may need to
  add a line like
  
    PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin ; export PATH
  
  
  to your ~/.bashrc file (or equivalent if you use a different shell).
  
  
  Just in case you are interested. My packages contain:
  
    - 
      fontforge -- the executable itself
    
- 
      libgunicode*.so -- a shared library containing functions for manipulating
      UCS2 strings, and various data about unicode code points.
    
- 
      libgdraw*.so -- the graphics and widget library used by fontforge
    
- 
      pfaedit-ui.{es,fr,it,ja,ru} -- translated strings to provide a user interface
      for non-English users.
    
- 
      *.cidmap -- not present in all packages. These are useful when editing CID-keyed
      Asian fonts.
    
- 
      README*
    
- 
      fontforge.1 -- a manual page for fontforge
  
    Ports that I am aware of
  
  
  FontForge has been ported to the following systems (at some point in its
  life)
  
    - 
      Linux (obviously, (redhat, debian, suse, mandrake),
      386,spark,arm,alpha,ia64,m68k,mips,mipsel,powerpc,s390)
    
- 
      Solaris
    
- 
      Irix
    
- 
      FreeBsd
    
- 
      NetBsd
    
- 
      Mac OS/X
    
- 
      OpenVMS7.3 for Alpha
    
- 
      cygwin with X running on top of MS windows.